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Monday, 7 March 2016

Manufacturers in the United Kingdom are hopeful of bright days lying ahead of them as the industry gets back on its feet from the blow imparted by the 2015 slump. But there’s another gnawing concern. The world economy not being in top shape currently could weigh on investments and hiring capacities. A survey of the manufacturing sector conducted recently by EEF – an organization of manufacturers – reveals that a few negative trends observed in the industry in 2015 could be bottoming out. Last year was especially rough for the country’s manufacturing sector with steel plants closing, output declining sharply, and orders from the embattled oil industry falling to dangerously low levels. The latter deeply impacted the profit margins of factories that were supplying goods and components to the oil industry.

The recent poll, which has taken into consideration 369 companies, has found that the output from the manufacturing sector continued to move downward, but showed some signs of improvement in the last quarter. The upturn comes after manufacturing output, around December 2015, hit its weakest level in the past six years.

The manufacturing output in the U.K. seems to have finally begun to turn around for the better. Manufacturers are also now hopeful that output from the manufacturing sector in the U.K. will show gradual improvement in the coming months as factories are beginning to see new entries in order books again. However, having been buffeted by harsh economic conditions, manufacturers in the United Kingdom will likely continue to hold a cautious outlook. The factors prompting this outlook are a steel glut, China’s lackluster economic performance, and a commodity price fall.

Nevertheless, there’s no denying that a chink of light is streaming in on the manufacturing industry in the United Kingdom, encouraging manufacturers to put the gloom of 2015 behind them. According to top officials from the EEF, U.K.’s manufacturing sector continues to remain in negative territory, but the climb back to the peak – albeit a rough one – has begun.